Moving people to the wrist: The historic challenge of the watch

Hans Wilsdorf, the man who would come to found the brand we know today as Rolex, had a formidable task before him when he endeavored to convince the world to mount a watch on their wrists.
Up until the First World War, the wristwatch was seen largely as a trinketa wristletworn occasionally by women of high society. Any gentleman who could afford a watch sported a pocket watch. Reflecting on the time, in a four-volume treatise, Rolex Jubilee Vade Mecum, published in 1946, Wilsdorf wrote: